The state still has more than 5,000 so-called orphan sites, those that are contaminated but where there is no viable owner to pick up cleanup costs. When owners can be found, the state forces them to pay.
The DEQ is working on cleanups at 450 sites now, but may have to shut them down by the end of the year and lay off 80 to 125 employees unless a new funding source is found.
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Michigan is running out of previously approved bond money to clean up "brown field" sites the contaminators of which cannot be found. This is essentially an advocacy article for the program and a new bond issue, which may be a hard sell in a state hard-hit in an economic down turn. While the need resonates with me, I'm sure that there are opponents to this point of view whose voice should have been reported.
The story brings into the environmental story the difficulty of financing projects in a time when state revenues are threatened by the declining outsourced economy, and the community improvements that can result.
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